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Talk:Frigates/Fast Boats/@comment-26915086-20170211190831
Greetings, I’ve been out for a long time, which I blame on my busy life, but I thought I should share something I’ve been considering. Tactics in navel craft have long favored large, battleships, packing nine or more high caliber guns along the center line. In the clear majority of cases, possessing superior durability and firepower is simply superior to possessing speed and agility at the expense of the aforementioned durability and firepower. This can be explained by the high accuracy and fire rate of guns in the 36cm-46cm range, when four triple 40cm guns (to take an example) are trained on a piece of water within 10km range (which is still well outside of optimum torpedo range), no surface ship, irrespective of size and speed, is likely to escape unscathed. Thus, ships that can tank the damage and respond in kind are going to be favored in this meta. It is for this reason that frigates and fast boats are not likely to be real forces in navel craft. Simply put, they are too small to implement the kinds of armor required to take hits, and far too small to be able to mount the kind of firepower required to respond in kind. This is also the reason that I have not really focused on the design of such boats, outside of experimental examples designed to push the speed limits or to be used in very specific situations. This being said however, I have had a bit of a change of heart. The first thing one must consider when designing a frigate, is the intention of such a boat, as previously mentioned, a frigate will never be competitive against an enemy battleship, and will almost certainly be outmatched by enemy cruisers, or even destroyers, even when fighting these inside effective torpedo range, frigates are still vastly outmatched. So then, what should the intention be? Ships that can move at a pace of 70kts make excellent counters to WWII carriers as dive bombers are unable to target them, but for the much more common 60kt frigate, the best option is sub hunting. This leads to the question of how to hunt subs with a surface ship. Put simply you have four options, 1) Wait for the enemy sub to make a mistake and either surfaces (in which case you hit it with surface guns) or sinks to crush depth. 2) Use of depth charges 3) Use of helicopters 4) Use of underwater torpedoes Ideally you would equip a ship to make use of all four of these methods of sub hunting, but for our purposes, we will exclude helicopters. They are somewhat expensive, and are best used in waves, as they are very vulnerable to flak, and have infinite flight range. thus, the ideal use of helicopters is on a helicopter carrier, which is not really what we’re looking for. To make use of the other three, we must have a fast firing gun, depth charges, and underwater torpedoes, on a fast, agile platform that can force mistakes. Thus a frigate, which is theoretically adept at this is the epitome of sub hunters. We have several other considerations, tonnage, and horsepower for example, but these are of far lesser importance, and so they will be set as limiters, with preference given to ships that can fulfill the required functions will smaller size and engine output. At this point I think we have a contract: Must have: 60kts top speed, high agility, stability At least two underwater torpedo tubes Two 12.5cm double guns Depth charges Minimization/ optimization: Excess horsepower Excess tonnage Excess cost Width and length Thus, we have a competent sub hunter on a budget. The intent is to maximize the benefits of a tiny ship for the function of defending large ships from enemy subs. So, let’s move our attention to the ship that fills this requirement: NCS. Hemiptera At less than 2000 tons, and a length of just 95m, (width of just 10m) Hemiptera is diminutive, even when compared to the other Nehean frigate Strepsiptera. Despite this, she is a particularly good sub hunter, as she is a tiny target, with great speed and agility, in a battle between Hemiptera and Nehean frigate subs, Hemiptera is generally very capable, which implies far greater potential against weaker, larger, or slower subs. Against surface combatants, she is reasonably capable, but is by no stretch of the imagination is she competitive against cruisers and battleships, simply put, she is too small. Her main edge is low cost, and tonnage for relatively high payout as most subs cost twice as much as Hemiptera (if not more) Essentially, Hemiptera is the smallest and cheapest combat viable Surface ship in the Nehean fleet. Further development: Work on a 70kt frigate smaller than Strepsiptera is in R&D Work on a smaller, cheaper 60kt ship with the same qualities is underway, prototype stage Work on a light destroyer to fit between frigates and destroyers is underway, planning stage A further note on tactics: Though the intent of the ship is blue water capability combined with close shore support, this is not to say that such a ship would be capable of long ranged missions without a tender. But operating in conjunction with tenders, these ships could operate on trans-oceanic escort missions. Thankfully Tenders are already available within the Nehean navy, frigates of this type would probably be deployed as ASW escort ships for tankers/liberty ships, and also as escorts for battleships/carriers as they are easily able to keep up with even specialized “pocket” fleets and strike packages. In 70kt strike forces, these ships would be swapped for Strepsiptera class frigates. In game, standard sub hunting tactics generally apply, though everything depends on the precise capabilities of the enemy sub, and how it fights, frigate subs are the most dangerous, as, unlike cruiser subs, they are very difficult to flank, and are tiny targets for torpedoes. Well, that’s all folks, if you have any questions/ qualms with my assessment of the meta, let me know, or if you have any suggestions for improving my technique. I probably won’t be able to frequently checkup as my life is still hectic, but I may be back soon with something else. Anyways, I hope I gave you all some ideas, happy hunting!